Chase's Birthday is Thursday so send him a howdy attaylor.chase@myldsmail.net by about 8PM Sunday night your time and he should get it on his PDay before his bday. I'm sure he'd love to hear from you.
I did a short yoga class before hiking Nanshan Mountain this morning. I got all bug-sprayed up and ran to meet Rhoda at the gate. We met the other hikers from SWIC and headed up the mountain. Breezy in spots which made it bearable. We also took breaks in the shade, much needed after taking the summer off. We hiked with Kris from Belgium, Sophie from France (her kids speak Italina, Mandarin, English and French) and Adele from Brisbane, Australia (Gold Coast). Chase emailed while we were at the top so it was a bit sketchy walking down the steep steps and trying to email back and read his letter at the same time. James Taylor's "How Sweet it Is" plays every time an email from Ally or Chase comes, so that was a nice accompaniment to the descent. Back at home. School is in session.
Tuesday: ran to catch the shuttle bus with Pon and Rhoda to metro. The bus was full today. The driver needs headphones on with a load of ladies chatting in all sorts of languages. We are having a neighborhood party at our house on Friday so trying to get some things ready for that. I went to get some things printed on vinyl. I spent over an hour getting all the sizes down and I paid and then he was going to show me how the vinyl sticks on the wall and is removable but when he lifted the sample it pulled off the wall in chunks. Sooooo instead of vinyl they are using photo paper. Not what I had in mind, but the language barrier is difficult so we are just going with this one. The girls had had enough at this point, it was pouring rain and dinner time. We already spent an hour at the bank trying to get back a double payment. Try explaining that one in Chinese! I've got to get the tutor back on schedule. We dropped off a subway sandwich to Brigham at the qsi gym where he was playing basketball, bought a few movies, stopped by Pons for a new delicious Thai dish and apple cobbler. Finished some school with Sophie, switched the laundry, cleaned up the kitchen and read as a family.
Wore pjs all day. Lots of visitors too: Rhoda, Aaron the property manager, the print shop, Ernesto and shannon. The kids gathered and headed to the church for the first mutual activity of the school year. We missed Shane at the pre-activity dinner. We could however, add some spice now that he's gone. Brooke and Brynn did the ice bucket challenge.
Thursday: halfway through manicures a big fluffy white dog walked into the nail place (on the third floor) and licked Brooke's leg. Her favorite! One of the workers thought she was sitting on a small stool but it was a small trash can and she fell into the can and tipped over. I have a hard time holding it together when I'm looking at Brooke, but we made it without laughing (out loud) this time. We stopped by the eye "dr" and the print shop too. The smell of hot, wet garbage is enough to make me stay away from old town Shekou Til the weather cools down. I navigated through an order on samsclub.cn, or maybe not! We will see what gets delivered Friday morning.(I did get a random box of some vegetable I don't recognize. He pointed to it on the receipt but I don't know what it is. ) Brigham started 9th grade and plays sports with his buddies (and a fair Amount of girls!) everyday at 3. Todd called and asked me to a dinner with his co-workers. Michael from Sweden and Joseph Smith from London along with Susan, the translator. We went to our standby Indian restaurant (everyone is jealous of our gold metal discount card that they no longer give out, inherited from the Kesters). While we were waiting for our order, a boy george looking guy with a Bird (looked like a magpie) on a leash walks to the "order up" window where the waiters get the food from the chef and asks the kitchen workers, "can I have a piece of chicken for my bird? Just a small piece." The kitchen handed out a piece and the bird flapped it's wings, ate some, dropped some on the floor, ate that and then they left. Disgusting.
Friday: Up and prepping the house for tonight. We painted, put some things up on the walls, organized the pantry, cleaned the fridge and waited for deliveries from Sam's Club, Nogogo, the print shop, the ice/water shop. It was a busy day and all the kids pitched in and helped. We had a good turnout of neighbors and it was good to say more than a quick hello. Everyone brought a dessert or an appetizer so we had a nice mix of things to eat as well. We now have new friends from Italy, Sweden, Australia, Netherlands, Germany and Boston. Brigham and his two buddies bought ingredients and cooked some chinese spicy wraps by themselves.
There are great people everywhere. Looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow.
Saturday: Todd and Jeff ran at 7 and he has been wiped out from the week-fell back asleep until 11:30am. The girls and I picked up glasses from Peter and went to lunch at malls. Grocery store too, where the girls had some fun with the exercise equipment displays. There was a whole row of massage chairs and foot massagers and every seat was filled with tired shoppers. They all got a kick out of the girls on the bouncing platforms trying to do aerobics. We tried some popsicles- grape with a kiwi slice in the middle, watermelon with kiwi, "cheese" with a strawberry-tasted like butter, and mango/grape. Todd and Brigham, meanwhile, went to the sports store for new soccer cleats. Todd had the whole house pretty cleaned up by the time we got home. He then went with Brigham to Red Lantern to order some Chinese food for dinner. Pres. Cox and Rhoda came over with a banjo in tow and gave us a mini concert (very impressive) while we waited for the Nashes and dinner.
Sunday: Camerons were back with their new baby, Jack. Played piano for primary and Captain "Scripture Power" made a visit in primary. He suddenly burst through the door when the kids started singing "scripture power". He mentioned that Chase used to sing…"keeps you safe from Sid" when he was little (instead of sin as the song goes). Lunch and letter writing, Nashes headed back to Hong Kong. Todd works in Beijing this week. We will miss Chase on his 19th birthday a little more than the normal days. I looked in the mirror to brush my teeth tonight and a lizard was on the wall behind me. Sophie and Brigham caught him and put him out on the deck.
Hope all is well with you. Keep in touch, come visit!
Love from China,
Taylor Family
The bird that came to dinner
View from 1st platform Nanshan Mountain
Boys at the party after ping pong
Lucia, Wendy, Sofia, Rhoda, Rosa, Fiona, Pon, Anja, Jane
Dale, Berndt, Stephano, Per, Adrian, Jaques, Todd, Jeff
brynn and saskia.
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